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California Governor Jerry Brown has ordered new DNA tests that, according to a convicted prisoner, could free him from a 35-year-old quadruple murder case that has caught the country's attention. Brown ordered Monday's tests of four evidence that Kevin Cooper and his lawyers would show that he was accused of killing four people with a hatchet and knife at Chino Hills in 1983.
The objects that will be tested are a beige t-shirt and an orange towel found near the stage as well as the handle and sheath of the hatchet.
Cooper was convicted in 1985 of murdering Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica, and 11-year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes. Prosecutors say that Cooper's allegations of innocence have been refuted on several occasions, including by previous DNA tests, but Cooper and his attorney argue that evidence has been filed against him.
"I do not take a position on Mr. Cooper's guilt or innocence at the moment, but colorable factual questions have been raised about whether advances in DNA technology justify a limited reassessment of some material evidence in this case, "Brown wrote in his executive order.
Brown has also appointed a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, US Senator Kamala Harris, State Treasurer John Chiang and reality star Kim Kardashian are among those who asked Brown to order new DNA tests.
Brown's Christmas Eve order accompanied with 143 pardons and 131 commutations, in keeping with its tradition of lenient grant during the main holidays or close to it.
In Cooper, the purpose of the new tests is to determine whether the DNA of any other identifiable suspect is on the objects. If the tests reveal no new DNA or can not find a person, "this case must be closed," writes Brown.
Two previous tests showed that Cooper, 60, was the killer, said San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike. Ramos. He had previously stated that the tests had proved that Cooper had stayed at the Ryens, had smoked cigarettes in the car of this robbery, and that Cooper's blood and blood of at least one victim were on a t T-shirt found along the way
Cooper's lawyer, Norman Hile, said that his client's blood had been spilled on the t-shirt and that more sensitive DNA tests would indicate who was wearing it. He says the investigators have also uncovered other evidence to charge his client, a black young man who had escaped from a nearby prison in the east of Los Angeles two days before the killings.
Neither Ramos nor Hile could be reached for comment on Monday.
CBS Press correspondent Erin Moriarty – who covers the case for about 20 years – reports that there was evidence showing another suspect and during the testimony at trial, it was learned that the sheriff's deputy had destroyed him.
When Diana Roper, who died today, was found. Bloody suit belonging to her boyfriend, a man with a violent criminal history, she has returned.
"Would not you say that taking suits that seem covered in blood did not send them to a laboratory far before the trial would be very unusual?" Moriarty asked Floyd Tidwell, who was the sheriff at the time. ;time.
"I do not know what happened," Tidwell said. "I am very vague about this."
Other evidence suggests that the killers are whites or Hispanics, say Cooper's supporters. In 2011, a San Diego judge blocked the request for a third round of DNA tests done by Cooper.
The planned execution of Cooper in 2004 was suspended when a federal appeal court in San Francisco called for a new review of the scientific evidence, but his appeals were dismissed. by the supreme courts of California and the United States. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger twice rejected Cooper's requests for pardon.
California has not executed anyone since 2006.
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